Dirk Nowitzki, a legend from … a crash

The so-called drag player!

The best non-American to ever play in the NBA?

That’s what you call him!

“We just noticed it then. If not the best, one of the two or three best, “said Nikos Zisis the other day, who of course has known him for a long time and has gotten to know him well recently, sitting at the same table (also from a distance) in her meetings of the FIBA Athletes committees.

The hand and admiration of Zisis

“I’ve always admired him and I remember going to the bench in Belgrade after our final with Germany on September 25, 2005 to shake his hand,” remembers the current national coach.

She really couldn’t congratulate him on the floor, because wisely Dirk Bauerman had withdrawn the superstar of his team a little earlier in order to reap the standing ovations and enjoy.

“He was a great player, but now that we have opened other games, I can see that he is a great man too. He deserves all the glories and honors,” concludes Zisis, not exaggerating …

I almost cut him off because he was lenient in his characterizations!

The jumble of history goes back 23 years …

Cole, Klinsmann and Marco

When Dirk Nowitzki left Würzburg (France) in the summer of 1998 and landed in Dallas, Germany had Roman Herzog as President, Helmut Kohl as Chancellor, Jürgen Klinsmann as National Team Leader and Jürgen Klinsmann as National Team Leader.

Today the world has changed dramatically …

The brand has been withdrawn from the market and replaced by the euro, Klinsmann lives permanently in California and works as a commentator at ESPN, Cole and Herzog have died and people are fighting the then unknown coronavirus pandemic word!

The Dirk Thermopylae

As for “Tall Baller”, he stood and guarded – literally with a German number – the watchtower in the Thermal Gates of Dallas until April 10, 2019 …

That night in San Antonio (Spurs-Mavericks 105-94) he presented his own “swan song” with 20 points, 10 rebounds, an assist and a steal in 31 minutes and 33 seconds and left a lasting impression Collective memory …

Crash fetish

The irony is that the man who remained eternally loyal and unwaveringly devoted to the Mavericks and was one of the fetishes of world basketball was found by leaps and bounds in their ranks!

This is indeed an interesting dimension of the Nowitzki phenomenon: interesting and at the same time tragic and macabre …

The German striker, born June 19, 1978, was voted No. 9 by the Milwaukee Bucks in 1998, but, unaware and unaware of their fate, they sent him to Dallas to pick up the Michigan-born Trailor who was on 6th place was.

The king, tragedy and satanic accident

The lives of the two players, apart from the tragedy of the case, were diametrically opposed: while Nowitzki lived and reigned in the NBA for 31 seasons in a row, was crowned champion (2011) and left an invaluable legacy, Trailor not only did not react to it, but died on May 11, 2011 at his home in Puerto Rico at the age of 34 of a heart attack!

In a satanic accident, the fraudulent Trailor was found dead while on the phone with his wife while Nowitzki was polishing his sword to (score 48 points and) cut up Kevin Durand’s Oklahoma City Thunder and Raste Gustel James Harden in the West’s first final Road to the NBA throne in a season that is already his incomparable masterpiece!

In the seven seasons and 450 games he played in the NBA with three teams (Bucks, Cavaliers, Hornets), Trailor averaged 4.8 points, 3.7 rebounds and 0.7 assists.

And the … morphonist from Würzburg?

In 21 seasons he played 1667 games (1522 regular season and 145 playoffs) and rose with 31,560 points to the 6th place of the regular season scorers of all time behind Karim Abdul Jabbar, Carl Malone, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan.

And it doesn’t mix!

In this brilliant career he averaged 20.7 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists, played in 14 All Star Games, made four appearances in the top 5 of the year and does not form a team!

What really stands out is that in the 75-year history of the NBA there is no other player with more than 31,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, 3,000 assists, 1,000 steals, 1,000 blocks and 1,000 threesomes!

His longevity on the same team isn’t combined either, as he wore the Mavericks jersey for 21 seasons while the late Kobe Bryant said “Mamba Out” after the twentieth …

Who can beat him? Luka Doncic’s teammate for one and only season if he wears the Mavericks jersey until 2040 !!!

A little promising debut

And yet his debut in the league was neither impressive nor very promising, nor even … decent!

In his locked out maiden season Nowitzki hatched on February 5, 1999 in Seattle, where the Mavericks 92-86 lost in overtime to the Sonic.

In this historic match, Don Nelson’s German striker was selected in the starting XI alongside Sun’s rookie Steve Nas, Michael Finley, Sean Bradley and AC Green and stayed on the ground for 16 minutes, 2/2 shots), distributed four assists, got no rebounds and committed a foul.

When Nowitzki stepped on the floor for the last time on April 10, 2019, I remembered and used a conversation by George Sigalas in a text …

Το one-legged fadeaway and the basketball escape

On August 2, 1996 in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, where (after the end of the Greece-Brazil game) Panagiotis Giannakis announced his retirement from basketball with a laurel wreath, George Sigalas waved in tears and declared: “I feel that I am not leaving a player , but basketball itself “…

Well, I dare to say that Nowitzki also took basketball with him when he escaped the courts: the basketball of his time, which he took with him from his village (Würzburg) as a teenager and became a trademark of an all-season, Mavericks coat of arms and all – NBA emblem.

I also had his own distinctive trait to illustrate: the one-legged fadeaway included.

The five of his dreams

The night before, in the game against the suns, Nowitzki had appeared for the last time in front of his loyal herd!

In his last game in Dallas he “scored” 30 points, eight rebounds, three assists and a block, but those were pale against the surrounding atmosphere …

With tears in his eyes Nowitzki was amazed to see himself surrounded by his five favorite players!

He was joined by Larry Byrd, Charles Barkley, Scotty Pipen, Detlev Srebb and Sean Kemp, who raised the alarm thresholds.

Breathing with yoga and sobbing

“I’m trying to breathe with the yoga method, but it doesn’t work.” I’m terribly touched by what is happening here, “commented the German NBA legend, who wept over the video of him performing with a sick child and the performance of which he had previously forbidden.

“I immediately tried to take a shot, but I couldn’t see the basket because of the many tears in my eyes,” he admitted. “This year I suffered a lot from the injury to my leg and after so many injections and so many pills I can’t find any reason to keep torturing myself.” I would love to play with Doncic and Porzingis, but I feel like I am can’t take it anymore. “

Barkley’s question

Charles Barkley recalled: “I first met him when he was 18 years old, in a demonstration game in Germany, he gave me 42 points and I asked him who the hell are you?” While the owner of the Mavericks and a huge fan and lover, Mark Cuban, told him that “there will soon be a statue on display here that will never be rebuilt on a stadium”!

Dirk Nowitzki didn’t just write his story: he played it like a rosary on his fingers and now tells it as a warrior, it grows and leaves it as an invaluable legacy in the NBA Museum and for the next generations …

After all, if LeBron has stunned us … the love of “a child from Akron, Ohio who shouldn’t be here and wasn’t expected”, Dirk can sing his own Troparion …

And of course, shouldn’t be here!

The saxophone and the right one

For a child who has given up on the saxophone, grabbed the orange ball and made it their slave and mistress, this magical career is truly like a dream trip.

Honor and honor to Dirk, I’ll rewrite that …

He deserves all the good things we say in Crete and he throws them away and in awe leans his fur in front of him, the whole basketball court …

By the way, Doc Rivers pelted him on February 25, 2019 in a unique, moving and even creepy way …

That night, the Clippers defeated the Mavericks 121-112, with Montrezel Harel stealing overtime with 32 points and Luka Doncic approaching an undesirable quadruple double as he had nine errors in addition to 28 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists!

“What the hell is Doc Rivers doing now?”

But…

But that night belonged to Dirk Nowitzki, who even got a double when Doc Rivers called a time-out nine seconds before the end of the game.

“What the hell is he doing now?” wondered and thought the change of the Clippers trainer at the time was unfair …

The next click showed that Rivers knew exactly what he was doing: he took the microphone from the secretariat and asked the audience to idolize the German star of the Mavericks, who played 1,500 regular season games!

“I thank him from the bottom of my heart,” commented Nowicki excitedly, who was affectionately attacked by his teammates and opponents, apart from the standing ovations generously donated by the audience.

The least that’s worth to a player who has been and will continue to be immortalized as an indestructible myth!